Residency Affairs Dept renews 12,000 visit visas of Syrians

Director of the National Workers Development Department Sultan Al-Shala’ani has confirmed increase in the number of young Kuwaitis working in the private sector, reports Al-Anba daily.

In his interview with the daily, Al-Shala’ani disclosed the number of citizens registered under the fifth chapter reached 9,967 while those under the third chapter reached 57,000; indicating that banks, telecommunications, oil, investment and finance are the most attractive sectors for national workers.

He said they are currently studying the possibility of matching the salaries of national workers in the private sector with their counterparts in the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

He affirmed the department conducts inspections regularly to ensure that citizens employed in the private sector are in their work places, warning that punitive measures will be taken against ‘fake’ appointments in the private sector such as closure of the erring employer’s file.

He also unveiled a plan to cancel the decision to exempt certain professions from the national worker percentage policy and deprive entrepreneurs dealing with the government of corresponding privileges if they do not meet the required percentage of Kuwaiti employees for the implementation of their projects.

He went on to say the department received more than 37,000 transactions in less than six months.

Meanwhile, the General Department for Residency Affairs in the Interior Ministry, through its units in the governorates, renewed about 12,000 visit visas for Syrians who remained in the country despite the expiry of their previous visit visas, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.

Sources revealed the department collected fines estimated at KD900,000 from those who stayed after the expiration of their visas. Sources said the department renewed the visas for three months as per the instruction of Interior Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah and imposed fine of KD10 per day or KD600 maximum.